Last modified: 2016-03-01 by rick wyatt
Keywords: marriage equality | flag of marriage equality | carl tashian |
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The Flag of Equal Marriage is promoted at makeitequal.org as a protest/awareness design based on the U.S. national flag with all but 5 stars erased, those retaining their positions in the 50-star grid, and being (counting top to bottom, hoist to fly) 5th, 6th, 9th, 14th and 29th stars, standing for the five U.S. states (sorted in admission order) that allowed for homosexual marriage as of 2010.01.01:
Massachusetts - #6 - May 17, 2004
Connecticut - #5 - Nov 12, 2008
Iowa - #29 - Apr 24, 2009
Vermont - #14 - Sep 1, 2009
New Hampshire - #9 - Jan 1, 2010
This design is accompained by three others, showing less stars, according to the dates listed above. Given the dynamic nature of this criterium, and the keenness of the proponents of this design on adding more stars to it ("We want the Flag of Equal Marriage to be complete, with all 50 stars lit up"), it is likely that this design will not be used as such
for long. At cafepress.com, proposed merchandising does *not* include actual flags. The designer is Carl Tashian, under a (CC) BY-SA licence, so derivative works, such as actual flags, may appear.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 February 2010
The Flag of Equal Marriage is designed by Carl Tashian (tashian.com/carl and presented at makeitequal.org. It is derived from the USA national flag by erasing all the stars except those which represent the states that actively perform same-sex marriages. The stars left are positioned so as to represent the order in which the states were admitted into the Union, beginning from the top hoist corner of the canton. The flag design is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License: creativecommons.org which permits, among other things, its commercial use, so there is possibility of its appearance in real life.
The earliest version of the site, which was saved by the Internet Archive on 2009-06-28 shows the flag with five stars, which was used from 2010-01-01, when same-sex marriage legalization in New Hampshire took effect, to 2011-07-24, when the sixth star was added to represent New York. This is probably the original version of the design, for no earlier versions of the site were confirmed to have existed. There are also several items offered for sale on www.cafepress.com/tashian which are decorated with its image.
Tomislav Todorovic, 3 November 2012
Earlier versions (probably non-existing)
An image found on the Web: http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT11_GYh6GVr4aw0fHpZKXGFoXf0WWRmAaHJIZsYh1_vPqIgQXdPqxJ1cuV shows the history of introduction of same-sex marriages in the USA through a series on flag images, most of which, if not all, are just flagoids, considering that the flag was presented on the Web long after the time of their supposed use.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 3 November 2012
0 Stars
Version with no stars: represents the time from 1777-06-14, when the U.S. national flag was adopted, to 2004-05-17, when same-sex marriage legalization in Massachsetts took effect.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 3 November 2012
1 Star
Version with one star: represents the time from 2004-05-17 to 2008-06-16, when the same-sex marriages were legal in the state of Massachusetts only.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 3 November 2012
2 Stars
First version with two stars: represents the time from 2008-06-16 when same-sex marriage legalization in California took effect, to 2008-11-05, when it was annulled by the Proposition 8 amendment to the state Constitution, which was adopted by people's voting a day earlier. The version with one star then became the valid one again.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 3 November 2012
2 Stars
Second version with two stars: represents the time from 2008-11-12, when same-sex marriage legalization in Connecticut took effect, to 2009-04-24, when the same happened in Iowa.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 3 November 2012
3 Stars
Version with three stars: represents the time from 2009-04-24, when same-sex marriage legalization in Iowa took effect, to 2009-09-01, when the same happened in Vermont.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 3 November 2012
4 Stars
Version with four stars: represents the time from 2009-09-01, when same-sex marriage legalization in Vermont took effect, to 2010-01-01, when the same happened in New Hampshire.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 3 November 2012
5 Stars
Version with five stars: which was used from 2010-01-01, when same-sex marriage legalization in New Hampshire took effect, to 2011-07-24, when the sixth star was added to represent New York. This is probably the original version of the design, for no earlier versions of the site were confirmed to have existed.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 3 November 2012
6 Stars
Since 2011-07-24, the flag has six stars, standing for the following states: Massachusetts (state #6), Connecticut (state #5), Iowa ((state #29), Vermont (state #14), New Hampshire (state #9) and New York (state #11).
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 6 February 2013
7 Stars
Version with seven stars: represents the time from 2012-12-09, when same-sex marriage legalization in Washington took effect, to 2012-12-29, when the same happened in Maine.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 6 February 2013
8 Stars
Version with eight stars: represents the time from 2012-12-29, when same-sex marriage legalization in Maine took effect, to 2013-01-01, when the same happened in Maryland.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 6 February 2013
9 Stars
Version with nine stars: represents the time since 2013-01-01, when same-sex marriage legalization in Maryland took effect, to 2013-06-28, the same happened in California.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 18 August 2013
10 Stars
Version with ten stars: facebook.com represents the time from 2013-06-28, when same-sex marriage
legalization in California took effect again after the earlier ban was declared as violating the U.S. Constitution, to 2013-07-01, when the legalization took effect in Delaware.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 18 August 2013
11 Stars
Version with eleven stars: facebook.com represents the time from 2013-07-01, when same-sex marriage
legalization in Delaware took effect, to 2013-08-01, when the same happened in Rhode Island and Minnesota.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 18 August 2013
13 Stars
Version with thirteen stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2013-08-01, when same-sex marriage
legalization in Rhode Island and Minnesota took effect, to 2013-19-21, when the same happened in New Jersey.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 19 December 2013
14 Stars
Version with fourteen stars: facebook.com represents the time from 2013-10-21, when same-sex marriage
legalization in New Jersey took effect, to 2013-12-02, when the same happened in Hawaii.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 19 December 2013
15 Stars
Version with fifteen stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2013-12-02, when same-sex marriage
legalization in Hawaii took effect, to 2013-12-19, when the same happened in New Mexico.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 19 January 2014
16 Stars
Version with sixteen stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2013-12-19, when same-sex marriage
legalization in New Mexico took effect.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 19 January 2014
17 Stars
Version with seventeen stars (ephemeral): facebook.com represents the time from 2013-12-20 to 2014-01-06, when same-sex marriages were considered legal in Utah. Before and after that period of time, version with sixteen stars has been valid.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 6 June 2015
17 Stars
Version with seventeen stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2014-05-19, when same-sex marriage legalization in Oregon took effect, to 2014-05-20, when the same happened in Pennsylvania. Replaced earlier version with sixteen stars, which had been in use since 2013-12-02, when same-sex marriage legalization in Hawaii took effect, except for the period from 2013-12-20 to 2014-01-06, when same-sex marriages were considered legal in Utah.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 6 June 2015
18 Stars
Version with eighteen stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2014-05-20, when same-sex marriage legalization in Pennsylvania took effect, to 2014-06-01, when the same happened in Illinois.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 6 June 2015
19 Stars
Version with nineteen stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2014-06-01, when same-sex marriage legalization in Illinois took effect, to 2014-10-06, when the same happened in Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Wisconsin and Indiana.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 6 June 2015
24 Stars
Version with 24 stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2014-10-06, when when same-sex marriage legalization in Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Wisconsin and Indiana took effect, to 2014-10-07, when the same happened in Colorado.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 6 June 2015
25 Stars
Version with 25 stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2014-10-07, when the same-sex marriage legalization in Colorado took effect. In that period, several updates
might have been done, but these were skipped until the time when the number of stars increased to thirty.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 June 2015
30 Stars
Version with thirty stars (first): facebook.com represents the period since 2014-10-09, when same-sex marriage legalization in West Virginia and Nevada took effect. in the following days, it also took effect in North Carolina, Alaska and Idaho but was stayed in Alaska on 2014-10-15, the same day it took effect in Idaho. None of these changes resulted in any updates until 2014-10-17, when the legalization took effect in Arizona.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 June 2015
30 Stars
Version with thirty stars (second): facebook.com represents the time since 2014-10-17, when same-sex marriage legalization in Arizona took effect but was stayed in Alaska, until 2014-10-20, when it was back in effect in Alaska again.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 June 2015
31 Stars
Version with 31 stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2014-10-20, when same-sex marriage legalization in Alaska was brought back into effect, to 2014-10-21, when it took effect in Wyoming.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 June 2015
32 Stars
Version with 32 stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2014-10-21, when same-sex marriage legalization in Wyoming took effect, to 2014-11-19, when the same happened in Montana.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 June 2015
33 Stars
Version with 33 stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2014-11-19, when same-sex marriage legalization in Montana took effect, to 2014-11-20, when the same happened in South Carolina.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 June 2015
33 Stars
Erroneous version with 33 stars: facebook.com. For a short time, the star representing Montana was replaced with that representing South Carolina, based on the fact that the same-sex marriage was first legalized in South Carolina, although the legalization first took effect in Montana, which is the correct criterion as originally defined. The issue settled down by itself at the time when the legalization was in effect in both states.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 June 2015
34 Stars
Version with 34 stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2014-11-20, when same-sex marriage legalization in South Carolina took effect, to 2015-01-06, when the same happened in Florida.
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 June 2015
35 Stars
Version with 35 stars: facebook.com represents the time since 2015-01-06, when same-sex marriage legalization in Florida took effect, except for a short period when it was also in effect in Alabama (see below).
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 June 2015
36 Stars
Version with 36 stars (ephemeral): facebook.com represents the time since 2015-02-09, when same-sex marriage legalization in Alabama took effect, to 2015-03-03, when it was interrupted, bringing the flag version with 35 stars back into use.
Regardless of these changes, the Web shop: cafepress.com/tashian still displays the offer of the items decorated with the nine-stars version.
On 2015-06-26, following the United States Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges case, same-sex marriages became legal in all 50 states. The Flag of Equal Marriage was duly updated:
i.e. made identical with the national flag of the USA.
makeitequal.org
Tomislav Todorovic, 5 July 2015